Treasury Takes Social Security to Airwaves

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

Published: April 7, 2005

He holds a doctorate in economics, was chief executive of a Fortune 500 company and is in his third year as secretary of the Treasury.

But on Wednesday morning, John W. Snow was doing what he does now on most days: being chief pitchman for a plan to overhaul Social Security that he himself has had little role in developing.

At Mr. Snow's invitation, more than 25 radio hosts from around the country -- from G. Gordon Liddy of Watergate fame to Hoppy Kercheval of West Virginia Radio -- broadcast interviews on Social Security all day long from the Treasury Department.

Mr. Snow, genial and tirelessly on message, gave five back-to-back interviews before 9 a.m. and another four for afternoon drive-time shows.

He bantered with Mr. Liddy, reminisced about Ohio with a talk-show host from Bowling Green and taped an interview that would be translated into Spanish for CNN en Espa?

Social Security ''served us well,'' Mr. Snow said shortly before he donned the first in a series of headphones. ''Unfortunately, the safety net is now frayed.''

In assembly-line fashion, the Treasury Department scheduled hundreds of similar interviews with dozens of other administration ''surrogates,'' in the jargon of administration media planners.

The serial surrogates included Karl Rove, Mr. Bush's top political adviser, and a man whose interviews have been almost as rare as victories last season by the Washington Redskins; Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez; Joshua B. Bolten, the White House budget director; and four of Mr. Snow's lieutenants at the Treasury Department.

Mr. Snow has spent more than half of his time on Social Security, according to Robert Nichols, his chief spokesman. He has been hopscotching the country, repeating talking points to community leaders in Bozeman, Mont.; business groups in New Orleans and Albuquerque; and students at the Sam M. Walton College of Business in Fayetteville, Ark.

The goal of Mr. Snow's trips, as well as those of the president himself, has been to drum up publicity on local television and radio, projecting Mr. Bush's message beyond national news organizations. The administration has drawn scrutiny for some of its efforts to promote its policies; in one case, employees at Social Security objected to a publicity drive that they said had twisted facts about the solvency of the system.

On Wednesday, more than two dozen broadcasters were lined up at long tables in the ornate Cash Room of the Treasury Department.

They all came at their own expense. Many were local broadcasters and many were conservative talk-show hosts who already supported Mr. Bush's plan.

Mr. Snow and dozens of other administration officials hopped from one broadcaster to the next. Mr. Rove arrived early, making a folksy appeal for letting people divert part of their Social Security taxes to private investment accounts.

''We should be concerned about the guy at the bottom of the scale,'' Mr. Rove told Kirby Wilbur, a conservative talk-show host from KVI-AM, an affiliate of Fox News in Seattle. ''Why should we say that he shouldn't have access to the wealth-making capacity of the American market? Why should we say, 'You're stuck with Social Security and you're getting 2 percent on your money'?''

Mr. Wilbur, who interviewed at least four officials during the morning rush, said most of his listeners did not need any convincing.

''When you're talking to the converted, you are really trying to make them better messengers,'' he said during a break between broadcasts. ''It's reinforcing the choir.''

Bruce Bartlett, a former Treasury official under President Ronald Reagan, said he was concerned about the time Mr. Snow was spending on the Social Security campaign. ''I frankly find it insulting, as a former Treasury official, to see an office once held by Alexander Hamilton used in such a trivial way,'' Mr. Bartlett said.